Welcome

In two centuries of American ornithology, The Birds of North America
(BNA) is only the fourth comprehensive reference covering the life
histories of North America’s breeding birds. Following in the footsteps
of Wilson, Audubon, and Bent, BNA provides a quantum leap in
information beyond what those historic figures were able to assemble.
The print version of BNA was completed in 2002 – 18 volumes, 18,000
pages -- a joint 10 year project of the American Ornithologists' Union, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Now as an online project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BNA is
becoming a living resource. Account contents are updated frequently,
with contributions from researchers, citizen scientists, and designated
reviewers and editors. In addition, BNA Online contains image and video
galleries showing plumages, behaviors, habitat, nests and eggs, and
more. And most online BNA accounts now feature recordings of the songs
and calls of their species, recordings selected from the extensive
collection of Cornell's Macaulay Library
of Natural Sounds. Future work will enhance BNA’s audio and video
contributions, speed revisions via efforts coordinated online, and
provide a significant boost to the number of photos available to
subscribers. Stay tuned!

Recent BNA Updates

Update (June2015) New Fully Revised Species
Accounts--Laughing Gull
was revised by Joanna Burger. This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. Also this month, King Rail was
revised by Bradley Pickens. This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. Snowy Owl was
revised by Denver Holt, Matt Larson, Norman Smith, and Dave Evans. The
photo,video, and
audio galleries
have been updated.